After Shelbyville showed us all that even a broken clock is right twice a day, the Battle of Alberta gamethread is back where it belongs. Oh and if you don’t get the reference in the title? Google is your friend.

Tonight, two teams on completely different roads will cross paths once again, where scoreboard watching will be put aside in favour of compulsory disdain and a sheer desire to lay the boots to one of your oldest rivals. Since 2009, it has been the Flames doing the majority of kicking, leading the head-to-head series 19-4.

Much has changed since the Flames and the Oilers last met on January 27th (when the good guys won 4-3), as Calgary seems to have taken a page out of the Oilers operational book and are on a slide towards the bottom of the league. The Oilers, meanwhile, are on the cusp of making a push towards unfamiliar territory of their own… the playoffs.

Somehow it seems fitting that these two squads would meet up today, April 1st. What has in recent history been dubbed the “Battle of Albrutal”, where either team is in the standings has been irrelevant because neither ever wants to lose this match-up, neither want to be the fool.

The Line-Up

We all know who the obvious loss to the lineup is, but we shouldn't forget who still is. Curtis Glencross loves himself a piece of the Oilers whenever the chance presents itself.

The Flames lineup is probably written in pencil, due to wide speculation around who might be staying and who might be leaving. Fronting the list is Jay Bouwmeester, with destinations including both Detroit and St. Louis. Others that are also coming up to be on the move are the likes of Tanguay, Sarich, Cammallerri and of course Glencross.

Very few are safe these days and there is going to be a lot of speculation leading right up to April 3rd. For now, here’s how SNET’s Pat Steinberg has the lines shaping up.

Glencross-Stajan-Stempniak

Tanguay-Cammallerri-Comeau

Hudler-Backlund-Cervenka

McGrattan-Begin-Jackman

Brodie-Bouwmeester

Giordano-Wideman

Butler-Sarich

Kiprusoff

The Oilers have to be licking their chops at the thought of facing Miikka Kiprusoff tonight with his less than stellar performance between the pipes this year. However he is also 15-2 in his last 17 starts against Edmonton with a 2.43 GAA. He will have to be “that guy” tonight in order to give his team a legit chance at putting a dent in the Oilers’ playoff hopes.

It will also be very interesting to see how long Hartley leaves the Czech’s with Backlund. Cervenka has been playing with a lot more confidence and certainty in the month of March, and Backlund’s creative and bold play is an interesting match that has the potential to pay dividends.

The Village Idiots

The Oil have won three straight for the first time this season. That is part of a 6-2-2 record in their last ten that has them sitting 11th in the conference, just two points out of the top eight.

An Edmonton Oilers Signing Alert has to be sponsored by Rexall Drugs, right? RIGHT?!?

It’s no secret that the Oilers’ Achilles heel (other than playing in the NHL) has been from the blueline. This morning they penned Ladislav Smid to a four year extension with an AAV of $3.5 Million. That’s sure to be enough to put them over the hump right? Relax Shelbyville dwellers, we know, we know… “Laddy” is a great shot-blocker and he has all the intangibles right? RIGHT?

It’s a good thing the defence is all sorted out, now Ralph Kreuger can figure what the hell is wrong with his highly touted offensive talent. “Yak City” is more of a ghost town these days, registering just one assist in his last five games and hasn’t been part of the Oilers late push. In fact he hasn’t found the back of the net since February 25th, and only has 5 assists during the entire month of March.

Things aren’t that rosy for RNH this season either. The young center has a meagre three goals on sixty-six shots, giving him a whopping personal shooting percentage of 3.0%. That’s a far cry from last season’s 13.4% pace. Then again, I suppose it’s okay to fall off a cliff when you know you will safely land on the coat-tails of Taylor Hall. Well done Nuuuuuuge.

Hall-Nugent-Hopkins-Eberle

Paajarvi-Gagner-Hemsky

Jones-Horcoff-Yakupov

Petrell-Smyth-Brown

Smid-Petry

N. Schultz-J. Schultz

Whitney-Potter

Dubnyk

Sum it Up

Game Day Prediction: The Flames scrape the barrel for what remaining ounce of dignity they have left and continue the Alberta trend by winning this one 5-3; snapping their road loss streak at nine.

Obvious Game Day Prediction: Curtis Glencross sticks it once again to the team that let him go, showing two versions of his infamous “Scoreface”

Not-so-Obvious Game Day Prediction: Hot on the heels of scoring his fastest hat-trick in Oilers history, Taylor Hall is about due for some mis-hap that has always seem to keep him out of games against Calgary. Tonight will be no different as he and his buck-toothed face will be mistaken for the Easter Bunny, so all the other barely pubescent children on the team will bug him about not getting enough candy this weekend.

What makes this whole situation really funny is that the average Oil fan is like some giddy, pimpled-faced nerd who finally landed that date with his lab partner’s sister. They say they have been waiting for this day, this day of retribution. When all the stars are aligned and the Oil can take back the pride that the Flames have, for the last decade or so, used to clean their skate blades after the game.

Newsflash… We know, we’ve seen this coming for a long time too guys. What makes it funny though is that despite everything, the losses, the bad trades, the injuries… whatever you want to jeer Calgary about this time, they just keep beating the Oilers.

These days, for Flames fans.. that’s not quitte enough for now. However, for added entertainment, Flames fans appreciate the fans up North, the ones that are convinced that this is finally it. The time for the Oilers to take that step forward out of the mire and take their rightful place at the fornt of the class. That’s just awesome and I sincerely hope the Oilers do make the playoffs this year. It will make it that much better when they are bounced decisively and the Oilers management is left shaking their heads as to what went wrong.

One last thing…

Vintage Flame is a Calgary based sports junkie that prefers to call hockey a "religion" rather than an addiction. He believes there are two types of hockey fans. Those who cheer for the Flames, and those who don't understand the sport yet. Follow Vintage_Flame on Twitter

Gather 'round kids and let me tell you about the Flames who went to the Cup final in 2000 and something... There was Wiggily Joe and he played for years on the donut line-- NO CENTER! I think he's gone now but they still have Phaneuf and the Gipper, right? Right? And is Cameltoe still on their roster?

Call it what you will but, if the Flames end up with 4 first round picks, they can become dangerous very quickly.

Rex Libris should be weeping but he won't admit it.

To begin with, I'm not convinced they get a 1st round pick for Kiprusoff. Perhaps, but his stats this year, recovery from injury, and oft-rumoured desire to retire at the end of this year likely give a great deal of negotiating power to Nonis.

They are in a rebuild phase, but I will wait to hear their management publicly declare that they are actually rebuilding. The two are not necessarily connected.

As for me weeping over their three 1st round picks, I'll admit that it is an envious position. However, John Weisbrod, Tod Button and Jay Feaster have not impressed me in their talent identification and prioritization thus far.

Different draft years, but the Oilers had three 1st round picks in 2007. Talent was there, but poor talent recognition and draft strategy meant that they ended up with, to-date, one NHL player out of the bunch.

So no, I'm not weeping. And I'm not too proud to admit my mistakes or true intentions - I don't ever want the Flames to win another Cup, but I'm not opposed to seeing the Oilers go through them to win theirs.

To begin with, I'm not convinced they get a 1st round pick for Kiprusoff. Perhaps, but his stats this year, recovery from injury, and oft-rumoured desire to retire at the end of this year likely give a great deal of negotiating power to Nonis.

They are in a rebuild phase, but I will wait to hear their management publicly declare that they are actually rebuilding. The two are not necessarily connected.

As for me weeping over their three 1st round picks, I'll admit that it is an envious position. However, John Weisbrod, Tod Button and Jay Feaster have not impressed me in their talent identification and prioritization thus far.

Different draft years, but the Oilers had three 1st round picks in 2007. Talent was there, but poor talent recognition and draft strategy meant that they ended up with, to-date, one NHL player out of the bunch.

So no, I'm not weeping. And I'm not too proud to admit my mistakes or true intentions - I don't ever want the Flames to win another Cup, but I'm not opposed to seeing the Oilers go through them to win theirs.

You will be weeping.

With those draft picks and that much cap space, they have a huge opportunity.

Very nice job of getting Nail involved, that is teamwork and proper line managment.

Now lets keep the pedal down and work on our finetuning but we need to keep the energy up because we need this muscle memory to remain much longer than we are used to, so lets get the hell moving already and pick it up a little more, this is a broken team we should eb able to exploit them more before this game is over, lets help Gagner out god knows he helped everyone else out this year, set him up for a goal its his turn.

They had a huge opportunity last year as well with a number of expiring UFAs.

Having a tremendous amount of cap space may also be their undoing if they try to spend their way out of this hole.

I'm sorry, why will I be weeping? This sounds vaguely threatening and I'm not certain what I've ever done to incur your attention in this regard. I've never trolled Flames fans, I'm not especially enamoured with the Oilers management during this rebuild, and I have been very vocal about fans of both teams carrying themselves with dignity in this rivalry.

They had a huge opportunity last year as well with a number of expiring UFAs.

Having a tremendous amount of cap space may also be their undoing if they try to spend their way out of this hole.

I'm sorry, why will I be weeping? This sounds vaguely threatening and I'm not certain what I've ever done to incur your attention in this regard. I've never trolled Flames fans, I'm not especially enamoured with the Oilers management during this rebuild, and I have been very vocal about fans of both teams carrying themselves with dignity in this rivalry.

What a letdown for Duby, what a lazy looking shift on the replay, that was bullcrap and someone better be buying doughnuts tomorrow for everyone, that was really lazy man, the two-minute drill idea just wont sink into the coaches heads here will it Ralph sometimes frustrates the hell out of me, such a simple concept and i watched his boi today , there is no excuse now, Ralph what the hell? Firts two and last two minutes of every period require their own tactics, micromanage better. This is the NHS way of preventing letdowns like that by instilling a GOOD HABIT like you harp about so much, get it done then man. By the way I was impressed with your resume, now just get it done here and now please and institute the 2 min drill before we lose a playoff series because of a preventable error catalysed by the lack of a good habit in the right place. You get no excuses now Ralph , you are no Rookie man, snap to it.

How? With what assets could the Flames address all of their organizational needs to surpass the Oilers (granted, historically not the highest bar to leap)?

They have very few prospects, one high draft pick, one mid-range (conditions depending), and one likely lower range pick in the first round this year. No 2nd round pick and no 5th round pick (thus far).

In their prospect pool they have one single NHL-ready prospect to attract the attention of other NHL GMs.

They could leverage virtually every one of those assets for NHL-ready talent, then spend a king's ransom in a shallow free-agent pool this summer and come out as...?

I haven't even mentioned the questionable team management skills that Jay Feaster has displayed thus far in his NHL career.

The Oilers have the Blues system dialed in now, every team they have played in the last four are dialed in to the system now in a new way. We now have a properly catalysed tactical database on the Blues, so its all over for them when they play us till they make changes.

This is not just a streak this is a new Oilers perspective we have not seen before.

This new personality will not change now, it will continue to evolve. Opposition teams are already starting to talk about our teams system and what we are doing lately, we are Goaltender Poison, we are forcefeeding them BadMedicine consistantly, teams think we have the books on their goaltenders when its really consistant system execution at the heart of our recent adjustments in the right direction. They pull them because there is no other explanation and when we continue to score we prove that it is system catalysed offense on our part not specific goaltender scouting and tactics.

This is the NewAge Edmonton Oilers coming of age and showing their committment as a group.

I have seen enough, Ralph has finally "got it" and I cant wait till we have 82 games to execute the system the way we are now and should continue to do for a very long time.

Tambi is full of crap, the Players have bought in to Ralphs system all year long, Ralph has finally gotten his house in order with more suitable lines from a dynamic perspective and his pre-game preparation and that has been the difference. So far the Players are displaying honesty and Integrity, Ralph is now showing more of the same and here we have red faced Tambi BSing us face to face, jesus that sucks to have to listen to that "pass the buck" mentality trying to hang the players out to dry, sticking his nose where it doesnt belong. Either muzzle Tambi or tell him to keep his nose where it belongs businesswise. I hate it when he plays headgames and tries to manipulate the fan base from his position of responisbility, he outstrips his boundaries when he does this.

Now that the team from the bottom up is becoming more integrity based and honest and STRONGER we are seeing where the weak links are and that red faced Blustering BS I heard from Tambi was not fitting. I hope the organisation can stop that type of fan and media manipulation and keep their managers focused on their specific jobs and out of team dynamics, kevin Lowe has set a fine example and evoved into a much more capable manager for the adjustments, we need to shut this idiot up, DONT blame the players to protect the Round Table or we will bust it to pieces before your eyes Tambi.

Sometimes I wonder, just what DSF is, Big, Small, Cross-eyed, Old, Young, so many kind of trolls! It's hilarious seeing everyone get fired up....every...time! If it wasn't for DSF we'd all be getting 2013 Stanley cup tattoo's on our balls already. And for that, I say Thank You Sir!

The Oilers have the Blues system dialed in now, every team they have played in the last four are dialed in to the system now in a new way. We now have a properly catalysed tactical database on the Blues, so its all over for them when they play us till they make changes.

This is not just a streak this is a new Oilers perspective we have not seen before.

This new personality will not change now, it will continue to evolve. Opposition teams are already starting to talk about our teams system and what we are doing lately, we are Goaltender Poison, we are forcefeeding them BadMedicine consistantly, teams think we have the books on their goaltenders when its really consistant system execution at the heart of our recent adjustments in the right direction. They pull them because there is no other explanation and when we continue to score we prove that it is system catalysed offense on our part not specific goaltender scouting and tactics.

This is the NewAge Edmonton Oilers coming of age and showing their committment as a group.

I have seen enough, Ralph has finally "got it" and I cant wait till we have 82 games to execute the system the way we are now and should continue to do for a very long time.

Tambi is full of crap, the Players have bought in to Ralphs system all year long, Ralph has finally gotten his house in order with more suitable lines from a dynamic perspective and his pre-game preparation and that has been the difference. So far the Players are displaying honesty and Integrity, Ralph is now showing more of the same and here we have red faced Tambi BSing us face to face, jesus that sucks to have to listen to that "pass the buck" mentality trying to hang the players out to dry, sticking his nose where it doesnt belong. Either muzzle Tambi or tell him to keep his nose where it belongs businesswise. I hate it when he plays headgames and tries to manipulate the fan base from his position of responisbility, he outstrips his boundaries when he does this.

Now that the team from the bottom up is becoming more integrity based and honest and STRONGER we are seeing where the weak links are and that red faced Blustering BS I heard from Tambi was not fitting. I hope the organisation can stop that type of fan and media manipulation and keep their managers focused on their specific jobs and out of team dynamics, kevin Lowe has set a fine example and evoved into a much more capable manager for the adjustments, we need to shut this idiot up, DONT blame the players to protect the Round Table or we will bust it to pieces before your eyes Tambi.